EXPLOITING WEB PUBLISHING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE REPORTING

1
EXPLOITING WEB PUBLISHING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE
PERFORMANCE REPORTING
JavaScript
ASP
tables
forms
Claude Aron Chevron Information Technology
Company San Ramon, CA
frames
hyperlinks
2
AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

3
AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

4
Introduction

• Web-based reporting is the information delivery
  standard
• Out-of-the box advantages over paper publishing
• Timeliness - delivery can be virtually
  instantaneous
• Universal accessibility - no need to predefine
  recipients
• Dynamic - content can be modified at any time
• Interactive access - users can select subsets of
  data
• Environmentally friendly - saves trees!

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Introduction

• But, merely converting existing paper reports to
  web format (e.g. HTML or GIF files) is NOT
  sufficient
• The increased exposure to increasingly
  sophisticated internet content has raised user
  expectations of usability
• The volume of performance reports in a
  distributed environment with hundreds of servers
  requires
• An efficient user interface for navigating to
  specific content
• A method for identifying exceptions thresholds
• A method for drilling down to increasing levels
  of detail
• A help facility to define explain reports
  metrics

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Introduction

• Assumptions
• You dont have the luxury of assigning or hiring
  an experienced web application developer to
  design and implement a performance reporting
  application
• The volume of your data capabilities of your
  hardware/software preclude dynamic report
  generation
• You have a basic understanding of programming
  principles
• You have some experience with SAS programming
• You have some experience with VBScript
  programming (optional)

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AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

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Environment

• 400 monitored NT servers
• File (54), Print (46), Domain Control (61), SMS
  (41), MSExchange (80), Shared Apps (47), RAS
  (16), Lotus Notes (14), SAP (17), Misc Apps (24)
• 22 HP-UX servers 14 Sun Servers
• Performance Data Repository is SAS IT Service
  Vision
• Data collectors are NTSMF (DataCore Software)
  Measureware (HP)
• Hardware HP-UX K430, 4 CPUs, 768 MB memory,
  13 GB disk space

9
AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

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Frame-based pages for reports

• The frame wars are over
• Frames provide an excellent UI structure for
  report retrieval
• Form with selection criteria in one frame
• Report output in second frame
• User navigational interaction is kept to a
  minimum
• Sample frameset syntax
• ltframeset rows15,85gt
• ltframe srcxxx.htmlgt
• ltframe srcyyy.html namereportwingt
• lt/framesetgt
• Sample form syntax
• ltform methodPOST actionzzz.asp
  targetreportwin

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Frame-based pages for reports

• Best practices
• Establish a strict naming pattern for report
  files, to minimize complexity of server scripts.
  Example
• servertype.servername.reporttype.interval.outputty
  pe
• Use the report output frame to display useful
  information when the page is first displayed,
  e.g. a high-level summary report or a help page
  that explains report contents or selection
  criteria.
• Minimize the screen real estate used by the
  report selection frame to maximize the viewing
  area for reports.
• Include a link to the site home page to a help
  page in the report selection frame.
• If you have multiple report framesets, include
  links to them in the report selection frame (use
  javascript routines to create dropdowns).

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AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

13
Exception reporting / hyperlinks

• Exception Report Design
• Large number of servers in a distributed
  environment makes exception reporting imperative.
• Try to design exception reports so that all
  exceptions appear on a single web page.
• Highlight exceptions that exceed thresholds (e.g.
  by color-coding) so that they stand out clearly.
• Provide hyperlinks to detailed reports that
  provide additional data on exceptions (length,
  severity, potential causes, etc.)

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Exception reporting /hyperlinks

• SAS HTML Data Set Formatter
• SAS HTML Data Set Formatter converts SAS data
  into html tables.
• Invoked via ds2htm macro call.
• Specify input SAS data set, output html file,
  variables to display in table optional
  formatting parameters.
• Example ds2htm(htmlfileabc.exceptions.20001231.
  html,
• datamysas.exception.data,
• varserver1 metric1 server2
  metric2 server3 metric3,
• clsize1, vsize1,
  captionServer Exception Report)
• Complete documentation at http//www.sas.com/rnd/w
  eb/intrnet/format/index.html

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Exception reporting /hyperlinks

• Embedding hyperlinks
• Build SAS variables formatted into html hyperlink
  syntax.
• Syntax is lta hrefURLgttext stringlt/agt.
• Set length of SAS variable to a large value (e.g.
  90).
• Concatenate literal strings to variables, e.g.
• cellvallta hrefpfx.. trim(servname)
  . trim(date) .gifgt servname
  lt/agt
• If a SAS macro variable needs to be followed by a
  period, you need to insert an extra period, e.g.
  pfx..
• Use the SAS trim function to remove trailing
  blanks.

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Exception reporting /hyperlinks

• Highlighting thresholds
• Same method as embedding hyperlinks - build SAS
  variables that contain html syntax for specifying
  color properties.
• Syntax for specifying font color is ltfont
  colorcolornamegt
• Test threshold value when building variables
• if thresh0 then exval put(val,7.2)
• else exval ltfont colorredgt put(val,
  7.2) lt/fontgt
• The SAS put function formats numeric variables as
  character strings.
• If you dont assign a ltfont colorgt, the default
  font color for that page is used.

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AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

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Server health reporting

• Server Health Report Design
• Green light, yellow light, red light paradigm
• Green Normal range, no action required
• Yellow Exceeds normal range, but may be
  acceptable
• Red Extreme range, should be investigated
• Metrics for availability, processor utilization,
  available memory, disk space.
• Analyze your own historical data to determine
  thresholds be prepared to tune adjust if
  necessary. If you have a lot of red lights,
  either youre in serious trouble or your
  thresholds are not set correctly!
• Metrics are hyperlinks to detailed reports
  column headings are hyperlinks to metric
  definitions (javascript popups).

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Server health reporting

• Coding techniques
• Due to cell-coloring logic javascript popups,
  we cant use the ds2htm macro - so we use
  standard SAS put statements instead.
• Output file is .asp, to allow server-side
  includes.
• Include syntax lt!--include fileyour.filename--gt
  
• Select/when statements are used to test metric
  values, determine what color cells should be,
  build variables.
• Syntax for hyperlinking to a javascript function
• lta hrefjavascriptvoid(functionname())gttext
  stringlt/agt
• Javascript function definition must be placed
  above the function call!

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AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

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Server configuration queries

• Server Configuration Query Design
• Be able to answer questions such as
• What are the hardware/software configurations of
  a class of servers?
• Are there any servers that havent been upgraded
  to Service Pack n?
• Which servers are configured with over 1 GB of
  memory?
• Can use flat file or database table.
• Use form input boxes to allow text or numeric
  input.
• Pre-fill with values that retrieve all servers IF
  thats practical.
• Allow case-insensitive input.
• Disregard leading or trailing blanks.

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Server configuration queries

• Form Processing Coding Hints
• Form input statement syntax
• Text input typetext sizen maxlengthn
  namefieldname
• Numeric input typenumber sizen maxlengthn
  valuennamefieldname
• Processing form input in Active Server Pages /
  VBScript
• To read values
• xRequest.Form(fieldname)
• To eliminate trailing/leading blanks convert to
  upper case
• xTrim(Ucase(Request.Form(fieldname)))
• To test for numeric input
• if not IsNumeric(x) then ...

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Server configuration queries

• File Processing Coding Hints
• To open a file for processing
• Set SobjServer.Create.Object(Scripting.FileSyste
  mObject)
• Set Sfilsobj.OpenTextFile(ServerMapPath(your.fil
  e))
• To read data from a file
• SrvTempsfil.ReadLine
• SrvVarSplit(OneRec,,,-1,1)
• To test for presence of a character string
• if Instr(1,SrvVar(0),SrvString,1) gt 0 then ...
• To write output records
• Response.Write

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Server configuration queries

• File Processing Coding Hints
• To close a file
• Sfil.Close
• Next two statements free memory system
  resources - very important!
• Set SfilNothing
• Set SobjNothing
• To send all the generated output to the browser
• Response.Flush
• Needed only if Response.BufferTrue was set.
  Response buffering is recommended in most cases
  to optimize network transmission.

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AGENDA

• Introduction
• Environment
• Using frame-based pages for report retrieval
• Exception reporting with embedded hyperlinks
• Server health reporting using color-coded table
  cells
• Server configuration reporting with query
  capability
• Summary

26
Summary

• Internet publishing of performance data has some
  intrinsic advantages.
• With a little thought effort, its possible to
  design reports report interfaces that enhance
• the user experience.
• You dont need to be a professional web
• developer - even performance analysts
• can do it!